The Circus - 25 August

Midnight train to Zaragoza

However the A-League's new TV deal shakes down, spare a thought for our friends in Spain.

In the hope of increasing the appetite for their game overseas, the honchos who run Spanish football have opted to start this year's La Liga two weeks earlier than normal. It's an interesting decision, because Spain in mid-August is hot and everybody is on holidays.

The honchos, in their Sangria-fuelled wisdom, have recognised that the new scheduling creates problems. Their solution is to have matches kick off at 11pm.

By midnight, the logic seems to run, it is cooler. And Spanish holidaymakers are back from the beach and eager to enjoy 90-odd minutes at the football before kicking on for a spot of nightclubbing.

Neither players nor teams seem particularly happy with the decision. Thirteen clubs rebelled last week, complaining that heavyweights Real Madrid and Barcelona were hogging the lion's share of the TV money as well as the friendlier kick-off times. Crisis talks had to be held before the season could get underway.

Atletico Madrid striker Radamel Falcao, usually in bed by 11pm, asked his Twitter followers for ideas on how to practice being awake until 1am: "We went to movies, went out to eat, I played [video game] Realfootbal, I can think of nothing else!"

And how did fans vote? Apparently, with their snooze buttons. At Zaragoza on Monday night, 11,000 watched the home team sleepwalk to a 1-0 loss to Valladolid. The weekend's two other midnight games were played to stadiums less than one third full.

By comparison, overall attendances for last season's opening matches, held on the last weekend in August during normal waking hours, averaged 71 per cent of stadium capacity.

As early-season decision-making goes, it's almost but not quite as bad as this:

When music goes wrong

Finnish music has a proud tradition, so it is surprising that this is the country's first appearance in this, part 37 of our investigation into what happens when music and the men of football collide.

There is the Nokia ringtone, which retains its timeless charm. And also this tribute to Sami Hyypia. Written by Hyypia's junior coach and recorded by Finnish group The Left Foot Company, it does to music what Sami regularly did to high balls into the Liverpool box.

Sing along: "Hey Big Sam / could we ever understand / how hard it is to fight every week against the stars?"

Minitelli

The Circus can't decide what it loves more about five year-old Joseph's take on Mario Balotelli's Euro 2012 celebration for Italy. The kid's note-perfect celebration, or the fact that among his teammates, not a single fig is given.

The tweeted word

"You live and learn."

- Peru centre back John Galliquio apologises after triggering a lockdown at a Costa Rica airport by tweeting while he was being searched: "Much more of this and he'll find my gun".

Peruvian diplomats intervened after a full-blown anti-terrorist response. "He's an idiot, not a criminal," a team spokesman said.